Perkasa and Najib’s Dilemma
Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad
If you were overly anxious of a deepening racial fault-line because of the rhetoric of the Perkasa’s President, the person who got to be a MP of Pasir Mas on the back of PAS’ hardwork and goodwill, and now calling himself ‘independent’, I would like you to read the good write-up of the MI’s columnist Shazwan Mustafa Kamal below.
I must say that such honest and insightful write-up will hopefully keep the media less toxic with an overdose of jaundiced views of one narrow perspective of the stakeholder ie the Umno/BN ruling regime in the media like Utusan, NST, RTM etc.
Consistent with the notion of an Islamist democrat, I must maintain that Perkasa or any organizations for that matter, partisan or otherwise, must be free to advocate and propagate their beliefs and conviction. Whether it is an extreme right or left, center-right or centre-left or however ‘centrist’ it may claim to be in the ideological milieu, (or not even worthy of being an ideology at all as this Perkasa is, perhaps, as opined by Prof Shamsul Ambri), I must stand up to defend their right to say their piece. I shall not insist that they be criminalized for being seditious or dealt with legally by any other draconian laws of the country. However, much as I support their right to express it, I must also be given the democratic right to oppose it. That truly defines a democratic environment and that truly defines a democrat from a pseudo-one. That’s a reminder to all and the writer is no exception.My contention of Ibrahim Ali’s Perkasa is seriously ideological. The entire struggle is flawed, as it is premised on the basis of struggling for the right of the ‘alienated’ Malays. In a frantic attempt at manipulating sympathy, the Malay race is alleged to be under siege and all-round attack from other races, including the so-called ‘liberal’ Malays, as labeled by the Perkasa’s President.
The Najib’s administration, now desperately wooing back non-Malays votes, is also alleged to have failed in fighting for the Malay cause. As Najib grapples with the challenges of the competing multi-racial interests and constraints, deviously projected to be mutually exclusive at times, Perkasa is hell-bent to embark on a self-pitying Malay agenda.
Recent dismantling of the NEP-type policies was accused of disadvantaging the Malays and the war lords or chieftains of Umno are extremely enraged. This shall continue to be the central theme of the struggle of an ethno-supremacist policies of Perkasa. Little did they admit that the NEP has for decades arguably failed to uplift the poor Malays and genuine bumiputera entrepreneurs and was only good at enriching the minute well-connected Umnoputera. Perkasa is on a ‘crusade’ to make the entire nation believe that the Malay race is suffering from alienation and erosion of political power. Perkasa is quite oblivious of stoking the flames of racial tension and polarisation.
